


Ocean Man, Take Me By the Hand

by DroppedAllTheseOreos



Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Can be Read as Shippy or Gen, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gen, M/M, very little editing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25280308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DroppedAllTheseOreos/pseuds/DroppedAllTheseOreos
Summary: Taiga somewhat recently moved to a seaside village and wanting his solitude, of course, his only local friend is a merman who hangs out on the most dangerous part of the beach. When he finally reveals one of his secrets to Graphite, he gets a pretty neat one in return.
Relationships: Graphite/Hanaya Taiga
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Ocean Man, Take Me By the Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Ocean Man by Ween
> 
> I legit couldn't think of a good title for this one so please accept the meme that also happens to be one of my unironic faves.
> 
> This might be really rough because it's an impulse post

Taiga carefully made his way down the winding cliff path to the beach. The silence from sitting alone at his apartment grated on his nerves. And the acquaintances he made in town so far were way too loud for him to be around in a mood like this. They'd likely make the situation worse, and he didn't want to lose his few potential friends just yet.

His foot slipped against a wet rock and he fell into a kneel on the ground, hands scrabbling for anything to hold onto and steady himself. Taiga's heart felt like it was about to hammer out of his chest, and he just squeezed his eyes shut and curled up carefully to get all his limbs and other body parts properly on the path. There were safer paths to the beach, and they ended up in much nicer looking locations than a small patch of rough sand, surrounded by giant rocks and honestly, dangerous tide pools. But those parts of the beach were almost always occupied by locals and tourists alike. And Taiga would rather take a dangerous climb up and down from the beach to hear the roar of the wind and waves and faint calls of seabirds over a crowded beach and the screams and laughter of people playing in the surf any day. Any injuries he got were worth it if the time to himself on the beach finally cleared his head.

When he was close enough to the bottom to start feeling the spray of the ocean when the waves would crash on the rocks, a voice suddenly shouted,

"Hey, hurry it up!"

Taiga flinched and slowly turned his head to squint down into the water to see a familiar, dark red shape against the stark blue-green and white of the waves.

"Go fuck yourself, Graphite! You nearly scared the shit out of me!" He yelled back and continued his slow hike down. The merman could be such a dick, Taiga was going as fast as he could... save jumping off the side of the cliff, he guessed.

Taiga first met the merman on his third or fourth visit to this secluded strip of beach. And looking at Graphite never got any less baffling. Taiga still had no idea what kind of fish he was, or how he even survived his day-to-day. One of his acquaintances, an _ama_ in training, had gone off about the kinds of fish that lived in the area for hours to him, and Graphite didn't sound like any of the fish in that dizzying lecture. And putting in 'red striped fish with spikes' in multiple search engines only brought up lionfish, but Graphite's scales and colors were all different, and the spikes he did have were thick, black, and only along his spine instead of all over.

Some agitated splashing from below drew his attention and he peeked over the edge to see Graphite and his ridiculous fish body that made no sense practically pacing back and forth in the water. His main color was a muted red, striped like a zebra in a deeper, darker crimson color, with accents of gold. And his scales were huge and defined, reminding Taiga of koi he'd seen in fancy gardens and aquariums. Graphite even had antlers made out of a coral-looking substance that he hung beach glass and pearls from with old fishing line. And Taiga hadn't even started on the tail. Even from this height, Taiga still had to turn his head a little to see the end of his tail as he swam back and forth. Graphite was long. Like, from where his tail started at his hips to the tip was two Taigas put together, kind of long. And that wasn't counting the huge, billowing coming off the end. He had all these big, fanning pelvic fins that seemed more suited for a betta fish than life in the ocean.

Eventually, Graphite stopped circling and gestured at him to come down, "You take forever! Just jump!"

Taiga nearly lost his footing right there because the demand caught him completely off guard. Really? He'd just been thinking it and Graphite actually had the balls to suggest?

"Are you fucking serious?"

"When am I not serious?" Graphite fired back.

Point. Taiga could count the number of times Graphite understood sarcasm on his hand, and he could almost see the unimpressed scowl on the merman's face, even though they were separated by a sheer drop off a cliff. Taiga knew there was a sense of humor in there somewhere, but it was just... hard to understand, and even harder to reach.

Taiga just continued on his way until a thought struck him and he suddenly knelt at the ledge of the path to shout down, "Why are you so eager to hang out with me?" 

"What, I can't look forward to sitting with you on a tiny strip of sand for a few hours?" 

He was taken aback by the admission, but he guessed he felt the same way about Graphite, "Yeah you can." He ended up responding.

They stared at each other for a while until Graphite held his arms up, "I'll catch you," he grumbled.

Taiga spluttered, "I don't think catching me or not is the problem here! You see how far of a drop it is, right?"

Graphite's expression somehow got even more serious, "Yes, and you'll be fine. Humans have jumped from bigger heights and lived."

Taiga ignored him to get back up and keep walking. Yes, humans have done that, but they all had a crucial survival skill that Taiga definitely did not have.

"Why are you so stubborn about this?" Graphite splashed frustratedly.

Taking a sharp breath, Taiga stopped dead in his tracks and slowly knelt back down to lean over the ledge, glaring at Graphite defiantly. This was so embarrassing to admit, and he found his voice trembling when he worked up the courage to say,

"I can't swim..."

Graphite stared up at him for a few moments, and Taiga wondered if he got through to—

"What was that?" the merman shouted back.

Of course, he didn't hear that. Even if merpeople did have magic, all of it in the world couldn't have helped Graphite hear that embarrassing confession over all the sounds of the wind and waves.

Taiga swallowed his pride roughly, and shouted down, "I can't swim!"

The declaration gave Graphite pause once again, this time for sure he heard it and maybe he'd stop—

"Why not?" Graphite suddenly yelled, "You come to the beach and you can't swim?"

"I just sit on the sand! Why the hell would I need to swim?"

Graphite looked down towards the water, but the frustrated growl told Taiga enough. After what looked like some grumbling to himself, Graphite held his arms back up again, "Just jump down! Now I'm really serious about catching you!"

Taiga wanted to retort, but before he could think of something, Graphite continued,

"You won't drown, I promise."

Taiga got back to his feet, starting to walk back down the path, but finding himself immediately regretting it and stomping back towards Graphite, and then immediately regretting that, and now it was _his_ turn to pace. He heard an offended noise from down below but ignored it for the moment. There was some splashing, and he looked up, thinking Graphite might've gotten impatient and left, but then he heard some chuckles and finally looked back down to the merman. Graphite was looking back up at him, arms down in the water, and floating in a relaxed position. Taiga could imagine the smug grin on the merman's face. Oh, Graphite was having fun with his crisis, huh?

He took a steadying breath, then got as much of a running start as he could on the thin cliff path, leaping off the ledge and shocking Graphite as he did, if the panicked splashing beneath him meant anything.

Since he'd never done anything like this before, Taiga kept holding his breath as he hit the water, and it felt like his lungs were getting punched out from his ribs. He let out the breath in a whoosh of a pained groan. Graphite was so caught off guard by his split-second decision, he did not, in fact, catch Taiga, and the human was quickly sinking. Taiga felt himself sort of start to float and tentatively opened his eyes to help get his bearings, fighting off the urge to breathe in. Unfortunately, in his confused and slightly desperate state, he ended up inhaling and immediately regretting it.

Taiga started to wonder if this was how he was going to die when he didn't see any sign of Graphite anywhere. But fortunately, he didn't get to dwell on it long, because arms were gently tugging him towards the surface from behind. Eventually, they broke through the water and Taiga felt a sharp strike to his back that had him launching water from his lungs in a geyser of saltwater and foam. He coughed roughly and was vaguely aware of the hands maneuvering him to hold onto strong shoulders and the tail lazily swaying back and forth between his legs to keep him afloat.

When the fit finally passed, he took in Graphite, way closer than he was used to and fixing him with a sharp, concerned glare.

"Of all the reckless humans I could've met," He finally snarled.

Taiga coughed one last time around a laugh, "So much for catching me," he smirked.

"I—" The merman seemed to struggle with finding a response and eventually just pouted, grumbling mostly to himself, "I didn't expect you to just jump in like that."

Taiga snickered and pressed his forehead lightly against Graphite's. The merman seemed surprised by the gesture at first but leaned into him heavily.

"So, are you gonna teach me to swim, or what?" Taiga asked when he pulled back from the soft gesture.

Graphite raised a brow with a grin, "I'll do something even better. You won't even have to swim."

With some careful shifting, and a slightly creepy, but impressive show of Graphite folding his spines down to lay flat against his scales, they got Taiga situated on his back, hands clutching tight to his shoulders.

"Just hang on," Graphite said, and started swimming out towards the deeper waters.

"What?" Taiga breathed, but he didn't get an answer as Graphite inexplicably started to pick up speed that shouldn't have been possible for his size and with a passenger on his back.

But as they swam further and further out to sea, Graphite's body began to change beneath him, growing and stretching to a more eel-like shape, until Taiga wasn't holding onto shoulders anymore, but had his arms wrapped tightly around a giant neck. He started sliding backward on the slippery scales, and that's when Graphite's back spines suddenly flared back up, catching Taiga against one, and providing something for him to grab onto in front.

Just as he was trying to register what Graphite looked like now, the merman dove down and Taiga squeezed his eyes shut instinctively. Now that he had a little more security in this giant creature he was hitching a ride on, Taiga felt confident enough to hold his breath properly, and even crack an eye open.

He lost some precious breath to the surprised shout he made, but the view was probably worth it. The ocean stretched out before him in a seemingly endless expanse of beautiful shades of deep blue and teal, with the sunlight glittering and dancing near the surface like blades of light. Schools of fish swam past them in brilliant bursts of silver, and Graphite even opened his giant maw to swallow groups of them whole.

It sent a shot of fear through Taiga's body, but as they went back up for air, he felt a little better about it. Just before they broke the surface, he had the sense of mind to look down and saw an absolutely massive shadow against the sand all the way down at the bottom, and his eyes widened in awe of the sheer size of Graphite like this. It almost didn't register that the stoic and regal merman he joked around with was the same as this gigantic beast.

When they finally surfaced, Graphite raised up from the water then tilted to the side, making Taiga slip off his back. He started panicking, thinking he'd be dropped into the water when he was caught in a coil of scales and terrifyingly powerful muscle. He tensed as he felt Graphite's body shift and curl beneath him, and eventually, he was positioned in a way where he could look up at the monster he‘d been riding on.

Graphite's patterns were still the same, but everything about him had shifted and changed to look like those ancient paintings of dragons, but with a much more reptilian or eel-like face than the wider, sort of big cat-like faces in those drawings. The horns on his head had twisted and grown intricately, and what looked like shoddily strung together beach glass necklaces now glittered in the sun like stained glass, cascading an almost ethereal light down on Taiga.

But through the glittering of scales and beach glass, Graphite's eyes, seemingly endless voids of black, cut through with piercing slits of acid yellow were somehow still the most striking aspect of him. The dragon's mouth opened up slightly, and his lips upturned in a grin. And despite the shock and fear, Taiga found himself smiling back.

After resting for a while in the nest of Graphite's coiled body, the dragon lowered his head so Taiga could climb behind it and grab onto the spines again. He swam them through the open water a few more times, letting Taiga see his fill of the sea, then turned them back towards shore as it got closer to sunset. Graphite kept them mostly submerged so Taiga could see the coral reefs, ogling the bright colors and barely believing anything could be this loud and clashing, but still look like it was supposed to be that way.

As they swam closer and closer to shore, Taiga noticed the gargantuan size of his dragon was starting to shrink down, to the point where he could comfortably wrap his arms around Graphite's neck. Eventually, they washed up on their usual beach together, right as the sun was about to set, with Graphite in his usual merman form and Taiga, completely soaking wet, suddenly dreading the long, cold walk back up the cliff path to get home.

"So, how was that?" Graphite panted, the gills on the sides of his neck flaring with exhaustion.

Taiga shook his head, "Unbelievable. But in a good way." He propped himself up on one elbow and smacked weakly at Graphite with the free hand, "Also, were you ever planning on telling me you're an actual dragon or was I supposed to wait and figure that out for myself?"

Graphite snorted and closed his eyes, sinking deeper into still-warm sand. Seemed like that was a trade secret.

"How long were you going to keep silent about not being able to swim?" He asked back.

Taiga spluttered, "It's embarrassing, it's like you admitting you don't know how to walk if you had legs for the whole time we knew each other."

The merman shook his head slightly, "All humans are bad swimmers, I don't think it's that embarrassing to admit you don't know how."

Taiga wanted to fight back, but he was too tired, and just flopped back into the sand to rest. He'd let Graphite win this one, but he'd get him back in the future.

They laid there, trying to warm up with the last rays of sunlight, but it wasn't nearly long enough for Taiga to dry out, and the cool night air was starting to bite at his skin.

"You don't happen to have any dragon magic that'll keep me warm and dry on the walk back home, do you?" He asked through his shudders.

"I'll do you one better," Graphite said as he rolled back into the water.

He swam out a few meters, then stretched and morphed into his serpentine form again. Graphite definitely wasn't as big as he was in the open ocean, but still enough to take up a good portion of the beach when he laid his head down in the sand. With a little twitch of his head, and an exaggerated look up, Taiga quickly got the picture that he was supposed to climb up on the dragon's head. Once he was securely holding onto one of Graphite's spines, he slowly swam to the side of the cliff, then planted his body in the sand, raising his head up until Taiga was level with the top of the path.

"Seriously, though, you could've done this at any time?" Taiga whined, and Graphite just grumbled, the vibrations of it trembling through Taiga's legs and hands where he made contact with the dragon.

Taiga hopped off his living elevator, and Graphite just gave him a little wink. Instead of coiling up and sinking back into the water like he thought Graphite would, the long, draconic body suddenly shrank down into the merman form. And Taiga caught a slight grin before Graphite was plummeting back down to the water. He flipped and corkscrewed in the air a few times, looking elegant and cool as hell until he splashed down into the water headfirst.

When he finally popped back up, Taiga shouted back down, "Show off!"

He wasn't sure if Graphite heard, but he thought he heard the merman's laugh carried up to him on the wind.

**Author's Note:**

> Totally not relevant but Nico's the ama or shellfish diver that Taiga's vaguely friends with he references earlier in the fic.


End file.
